City text-art between geographic identity and artistic identity
Dr.Shereen Alharazy
College of Art and Design, King Abdul-Aziz University, Saudi Arabia
Summary:
This study dealt with one of the most important characteristics distinct for Arabic cities
which are the city text-art, where it started to miss its identity while trying to mimic Western
cities and introducing recent technologies. Arabic cities lost their independency, identity and
personality, and these arts are no longer seen as part of the city's heritage and identity. As the
present and future started to exceed the past and the heritage, and the text- arts are seen as
features of contamination and urban retardation in Arabic cities.
Many examples pointed out the absence of aesthetic vision and marginalization of the
origin of Arabic cities and assassination of its rooms in trial to looking forward and
accompanying the era and struggle for the civil development without looking to aesthetic and
geographical identity of the Arabian cities.
Introduction :
Speaking of city text art where it needs more comprehensive and aesthetic vision to the
privacy of this type of art, it used the Arabic letter within time and place framework linked to
Arabic street, as the city text art played a strong role in expression about the characteristics of
the Arabic people culture in Arabian cities in events passing on the idea and the picture reaching
to the mission and objective.
Arabic letters with differences in shapes, place and time styles is able to be formed
according to the geography of the place and its origin to express at the end about one objective
achieving the identity, heritage, history and civilization of individuals and people. The city text
art forms and expresses its aeshtetic data. City text arts works are private which are acquired
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from the Arabic letters such as shape, expressive and artistic item which obligates the users to
deal with it as artistic visual item, so the boards, advertisements and sentences appeared written
with all economic, social and political contents to deal with shape and content of Arabic letter
and using it as a visual tool, and appeared the various art of writing including calligraphy,
typography and graffiti which subject this letter for change and development so appeared as
aesthetic, popular and historical icon in which intervened the aesthetic and beneficial values and
missions of these Arabic letter through privacy of each community and confidentiality of each
continent and each Arabic country in Islamic world.
From this point, the researcher presents this study to know this type of text art and its
effect on different types of calligraphy and its role in shaping letter and symbolic language
achieving the identity of Arabian cities existing in each time and place adding aesthetic identity
not devastating it, giving the pattern of being unique and distinct in all Arabian cities in
different continents.
Research importance:
The importance of this research is confined in explaining the artistic shapes and patterns
of city text- art, as being a part from pattern and architecture of Arabian cities carrying the
history, memories and human identity of each Arabian country behind writing that have
aesthetic and geographical pattern that characterize the Arabian cities and giving them place and
time identity.
Research objective:
This research aims to determine the shapes of city text- art and throwing lights on them
as basic component in aesthetics of Arabic cities, and a trial to re-organize the aesthetic vision
of this type of art in Arabian cities.
Research problem:
We live in this modern time a defining artistic culture since determination of the term
globalization in the second half of the twentieth century, all felt that globalization means
dissolving the cultures in unified artistic form which pushed the innovators and artists to call for
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holding the identity and roots otherwise the art will a deformed copy according to a culture in
which language and identity are threatened to be marginalized, and it is a must to be aware
about importance of working to confirm the features of Arabian cities which are replaced by
features of modern cities and only left the remnants of them.
So this study start from awareness of the importance of existence of city text art as a
reality and fixed assets that could not be ignored or removed from streets of stores fronts or in
public squares in Arabian cities to tell the story of the people civilization and identity of the
nation in the eyes of those watching them.
So we could determine the research problem in the following question:
Does the city text art could achieve the artistic place and aesthetic identity that is non
devastating in the system of Arabian cities?
Research method:
This study depends on the theoretical framework and field observations to follow the
patterns of city text- art and knowing the place's geographical and artistic aesthetic identity
appearing from the photos enclosed with the research.
Research skeleton:
This subject will be dealt with through:
First section- Concept of city text art and its characteristics.
Second section- Features of city text art, patterns and shapes.
Third section- Visual critical study of shapes of city text art in Arabian cities.
Study border:
The study deals with the shapes of city text art in most Arabian cities using Arabic
writing in both Asia and Africa.
First section: Concept of text arts- characteristics and objectives:
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Text arts are considered one of the most important visual language for the included
rules and characteristics that differentiate it from other language arts. As human in the past old
ages tried to register and write their history, so writings on ancient temples and caves walls,
obelisks, wooden boards, papers, animals bones and skin and stones appeared in all Arabic and
Islamic world countries in different languages written by Arabic letter like Turkish, Persian,
Indian and African.
This original art is connected to our civilization and our distinct arabian language which
withstand in front of other arts and even in front of the modern era changes and technologies,
Arabs and Muslims took their language and writings to all countries so Arabic writing became
in every country and place a unique beauty and the magic of the country which put them in the
highest ranks of visual arts in aesthetics and originality.
The text arts are differed in types in cities' streets and external places from others for
many reasons including culutre of the people which became basic part in the context of ancient
and modern city and form of the distict form of idfentity for each other.
It is not hidden from the vision of any visitor or resident in any Arabic countries the
boards in streets, yards, cities entrances, random and intended advertisement in addition to
guiding and directing writing, sentences of love or hate and other text arts spreading in the
Arabian cities, these sentences and boards give each Arabic country a feature and flavor special
for it which pushed many tourists to wander in the city aspects and enjoy the aesthetics of fonts,
color and sentences. While some others consider it feature of retardation or visual contamination
but their massive and growing presence in modern cities transformed them to aesthetic and
environmental issue.
Text arts are characterized with features, rules and types discriminating them from other visual
arts as the text arts are divided into two basic types according to the font used in writing :
1- Traditional Arabic fonts:
a) Thuluth font.
b) Kufi font.
c) Naskh font.
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d) Diwani font.
e) Reqaa font.
f) Andalus font.
g) Persian font.
2- Modern Arabic fonts:
a) Free modern font.
b) Egyptian Reqaa.
c) Computer font.
When going deeper in studying the text arts of advertisement we find that all of them are
participating in many features and characteristics that enables them to deliver their mission to
the receiver, which are directed to individuals and communities, those text arts must attract the
receiver attention within few minutes or during his passage in public road or crowded street, and
leave a strong impression making him thinking about it, so the words must be brief clear with
coordinated colors and sometimes the expressive photo could replace words "A picture is worth
a thousand words".
Second section- Features of city text art, patterns and techniques:
The text arts in all its form are represented in one shape or another as an innovation and
a distinction which expresses itself when appeared and linked to the geographical identity of
the place or city and the artistic identity of the community, sometimes we find it on vehicles as
good method to face unknown or expressing the thought of its owner, and other times we found
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it on walls as encouraging or mocking or guiding sentences, and others this art appears on store
fronts and all of them reflect meanings inspired from place and geographical identity. The
difference in innovation returns to the difference between specialized and amateur so the styles
of writing appear wither professional or primitive, and concerning the shape the text arts are
divided to three expressive patters that differ according to the text style and method of writing,
these patterns are:
1- Calligraphy: The art of drawing and writing using Arabic letters through coordination and
synchronization in lines and curves with original eastern pattern.
2- Typography: Is the art of shaping using words, which means shaping text or certain shape or
situation using letters available in computers or ready- made letters or pre-made letters.
3- Graffiti: The art of drawing on walls using special tools in artistic form using modern
developed letters for intended words or terms or targeted sentences and with free expression.
While considering technique or raw materials, it differs accordign to the city text art
(calligraphy- typograpgy- graffiti) and accoridng to the material or raw materials used in
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writings and accoridng to the surface writing on and are done using the following tecniques in
writing:
1- Colors.
2- Sprays.
3- Lights.
4- Print.
The city text arts aims to ensure the text expressive aspect through tracing the effect of
text arts in cities in all their shapes, types and cultures, we found an artistic festival full of fonts
and colors, abuzz with life in Arabian cities roads and streets, some of them express the heritage
and the old, and others express the place or a product and some parts talks about the suffering
and conditions of people, introducing features about the place and time identity which includes
in its content the shape, work, sign and picture.
Third section- Visual critifcal study for city text arts in arabian cities:
The text arts dominates all the visual scene in the Arabic world cities and become a
visual phenomenon, to the extent that we sometimes do not notice them and do not consider
them, the texts represent visual personality of these places and the issue is not limited to
advertisement boards but extended to wall, floor and buildings drawings.
The liveliness of these writings with their uncountable colors and shapes formed a
tourism postal card for each Arabian city, exactly as the huge advertisement photos forms the
identity of "Times Square" in New York and symbol for the whole city.
Undoubtedly, the text arts with their various shapes in streets became part of the context
of the ancient city and have become a part of the features and landmarks of the cities, yards and
roads connecting them, so some people especially tourists could look to them with care and
something of adoration too.
In the following we will list examples of the most important subject affecting variation
of text arts shapes that participated in appearance of this art with its aesthetic and artistic
features and the inclusion of symbols that remained title for the geography of the place across
different eras, which are:
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First: Folk heritage:
The traditions and folk heritage have prominent role in text arts, those working on
writing inspired some of the sentences rooted in the fold heritage of this country and registered
them according to personality and identity of this city, there are the religious and social
traditions (Figure1) and there are sentences coming from cultural heritage of the community and
deeply rooted in it(Figure2), these folk thoughts could be reflected in the form of comic writings
or folk songs writings (Figure3) , followed by folk expressions then warning and folk proverbs
as those present on front and back of vehicles for example, each driver care that the written
sentence expresses their philosophy in life (Figure 4), this philosophy in return reflects the
cultural features of large category of drivers of these vehicles, also some of these sentences on
walls reflect the context of values and methods of thinking. from these meaning we find
complains from injustice, cruelty, lost love, warning from anger and envy(Figure 5), call for
patience and surrender, being near to protectors, some calling for mercy, love and cooperation,
also some of these sentences reflects religion and holding of virtue, acceptance of
destiny(Figure 6), all these declares cultural characteristics that are deeply rooted in depth of
history.
(Figure1) Egypt
(Figure 2) Saudi Arabia
(Figure 3) Egypt
(Figure 4) Egypt
(Figure 5) Egypt
(Figure 6) Saudi Arabia
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Second: Expression of social problems:
This type of text arts appeared though short sentences written in a simple language
mostly in public words and differ according to nature of each community and suffering of each
person to express a reality full of slogans and emotions not free of regret and feeling of sorrow
and sadness(Figure7), writings with deep sadness or unachieved dream yet (Figure 8), or
aroused feeling from methods of bureaucracy and injustice(Figure 9), or could be to describe
reality and real issues occupying the citizens like love(Figure 10), supporting certain team in
front of the other or expressing daily issues like housing and work (Figure 11), and mostly the
writings are converted to graffiti carrying social, cultural and political letter(Figure 12).
(Figure 7) Yemen
(Figure 10) Jordan
(Figure 8) Saudi Arabia
(Figure 11) Sudan
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(Figure 9) Jordan
(Figure 12) Palestine
Third: Indication and advertisement :
Advertisement boards are basic element in the general look of the cities and an
important source of income for municipalities and governments, and become connected to status
of each city alone and its urban privacy and planning, and the attention of the people and others,
the advertisement boards participate largely in shaping aesthetic culture of the city and
providing the feeling of distinction through styles of writing in addition to hot colors and
lights(Figure13), some could see that Arabian cities suffer from chaos of advertisements and
random writings which resulted in severe visual contamination, but correspondingly and from
positive side of view, this type of text arts could be considered as art and discriminate each city
from one another. Looking at sings we see some display products for sale (Figure14), while
some scripts indicate the name of the shop, or the services its offering (Figure15), and some
write names to draws attention and to attract consumer (Figure16), as some stores choose
funny names(Figure17), , we can see signs localize foreign names(Figure18).
(Figure 13) Egypt
(Figure 16) Morocco
(Figure 14) Jordan
(Figure 15) Algeria
(Figure 17) Dubai
(Figure 18) Kuwait
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Forth: Direction and guidance:
This direction and guidance could take the religious pattern as a reminder of God's
name (Allah) (Figure19),or some verses from Qur'an (Figure20), or sentences aiming to confirm
nationality(Figure 21) and rising national flag accompanied by photo of the king (Figure22),or
spreading culture of awareness and respect(Figure 23), and virtue of ethics in development of
nations or discussion of lawsuits and problems either being social, behavioral, or
economical(Figure 24), this guidance aiming to formation of personality of individuals in the
community and immunizing them against deviant thoughts, direction in all psychological,
ethical, social, educational and vocational aspects so the individual becomes a good member in
the community.
(Figure 19) Egypt
(Figure 22) Bahrain
(Figure 20) Bahrain
(Figure 23) Saudi Arabia
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(Figure 21) Saudi Arabia
(Figure 24) Algeria
Conclusion:
Through this study we could reach a number of results, and get many recommendations as
a trial to throw light on the positive aspect of city text art that could be summarized in the
following:
1- The features of city text arts in Arabian cities are characterized by aesthetics of our Arabic
identity and the independent city personality away from features of modern city.
2- The Arabic font used in city text art in different shapes express a type of visual art related to
aesthetic vision with distinct geographical identity.
This research did not cover all patterns and shapes of city text art which could not be
removed or ignored but to live with and to look at its locational and timeable aesthetics and to
confirm that, the following must be tried:
1- Re-consideration of urban planning of modern cities without ignorance of the Arabian cities
identity, planning the cities according to Arabic and text identity, in addition to achievement
of identity on all functional, construction, aesthetic, environmental, social and economical
levels in balanced form without marginalization of the role of aesthetic text arts.
2- Avoidance of planning thoughts quoted from west cultures about our environment and
culture and trial of an identity that has distinct historical and cultural pattern.
3- Benefit from culture and heritage of Arabian cities to know the aesthetic aspects deeply
rooted in them characterizing them geographically and for tourism.
4- Necessity of focus on city text art aesthetic aspect as symbol for this cities and title for them.
5- Conduction of intense educational campaigns for the citizens and promoting them to reconsider the environmental and local culture and not attacking them as being features of
environmental pollution.
References:
Arabic References
. ‫ الرياض‬، ‫ دارالعبيكان للنشر‬، ‫ جرافيتي ارت‬،‫ م‬2017 ، ‫ عبدهللا‬،‫ الحربي‬-1
. ‫ عمان‬, ‫ دار األهلية للنشر والتوزيع‬، ‫ التصميم الجرافيكي‬، ‫ م‬2009 ، ‫ إياد محمد‬، ‫الصقر‬
-2
. ‫ القاهرة‬، ‫ دار النشر موسوعة تاريخ الفن والعمارة‬، ‫ رسالة الخط العربي‬،‫ م‬1986 ، ‫ أحمد‬، ‫ رضا‬-3
. ‫ عمان‬، ‫ دار اسامة للنشر‬، ‫ موسوعة الخط العربي‬، ‫ م‬2002 ، ‫ أيمن‬،‫ عبد السالم‬-4
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English References
1- Bellon, Daniel. Bellon,Klaus,2010, Typography for the people: : Hand-Painted Signs
from Around the World Plus 15 Free Fonts,UK, HOW Books
2- Vilagomez , Nikki ,2015, Culture Typograph: how culture affects Typograph , Canada,
F&W Media International Ltd.
3- Identification Place & Place of Identification, 2011/04/06,
http://www.al-madina.com/article/78238/
4- Berer, Josh, Arabic Calligraphic Design, 2008/01/10,
http://www.arabiccalligrapher.com/
5- Visual pollution threatens the oldest inhabited city in history, 2011/06/01,
https://www.zamanalwsl.net/news/19742.html
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